This invention primarily is concerned with crop roll forming machines. More particularly it presents an improved bale forming means that will permit the bale forming means to form larger rolls of crop material without having these larger crop rolls damage the bale forming means.
The forming of large compact rolls of crop material from precut and dried windrows of forage crops recently has become increasingly popular and commercially valuable in the agricultural industry. Several methods for forming large compact rolls of crop material have evolved. In one of these methods a machine rolls a swath or windrow of crop material along the ground until a roll of desired size is obtained. An example of a machine utilizing this method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,145, dated Nov. 12, 1963. This method of forming bales or large rolls of crop material suffers from the principal disadvantage of leaving a varying amount of the crop material on the ground without including it in the crop roll. Additionally, dirt, clods of earth or stones can also be picked up by the roll and included therein. This is undesirable under circumstances where the baled crop material is used as fodder for livestock.
A later and commercially more successful method of forming crop rolls utilizes a machine in which the precut and dried crop material is picked up from swaths or windrows from the field and directed onto a lower conveyor. The conveyor then transports the crop material to a bale forming region where an upper apron or flight of belts, usually positioned above and adjacent the conveyor, moves in a suitable direction to rotate the crop material with which it is brought into contact. Variations of this type of machine are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,909 to Mast, dated Jan. 14, 1975 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,197 dated Mar. 27, 1973.
Variations of the machines of this latter type utilizing a lower conveyor have attempted to produce increasingly larger sized bales in response to the currently increasing demand and popularity of these large roll forming machines. This demand primarily has been spurred by the ability to use these crop roll forming machines in a wider range of crop materials and by the increasing interest being shown by commercial hay operators in large round bales. The formation of larger bales of rolled crop material in machines utilizing lower conveyors naturally has resulted in greater loads being applied to the upper apron or flight of belts as the rolled bale's diameter and mass increases while this apron or flight of belts attempts to apply greater tension to ensure that the formed bale has a uniform compactness and density throughout. This has required that the upper apron or flight of belts be able to withstand these greater loads.
Crop roll forming machines of the type earlier referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,909 to Mast utilize an upper apron comprising a pair of endless, flexible link-type chains positioned on opposing sides of the frame and interconnected by a plurality of parallel spaced apart transverse connecting means or slat-type members. Attempts to increase the bale size in this type of roll forming machine require that the transverse connecting means be lengthened. The longer these transverse connecting means are made, the greater will be the mass and size of the crop rolls formed by these machines. However, these larger crop rolls will subject the transverse connecting means to greater stress loads and increase the likelihood of bending or deforming the transverse connecting means. This load naturally will be greatest for green, moist crops. If the transverse connecting means are subjected to sufficiently great loads by the increased crop roll size, the transverse connecting means will bend outwardly sufficiently to cause the crop roll forming machine to become inoperative.
The foregoing problem is solved in the design of the machine comprising the present invention by substantially reinforcing the transverse connecting means of the upper apron so that the transverse connecting means are able to withstand the increased loads to which these connecting means are subjected as the size of the crop rolls is increased.